Johanna Hedén

Johanna Hedén was born in a poor family. Her mother died in childbirth because of an incompetent midwife. Her father denied her education because of her gender and provided her a position as a domestic in Stockholm. Her employer, however, persuaded her brother to allow her to study.

Hedén took her license as a midwife in 1858, after which she also trained as an apothecary. At that time, feldsher- and barber was the title for a surgeon who performed less complicated surgical operations. Johanna Hedén made her oath and took her exam as a barber- and feldsher surgeon at the Sundhetskollegium on 7 August 1863,[1] thereby formally making her the first trained female surgeon in Sweden, granting her the permission to be professionally active in this field. She herself formally commented on this: "I took my exam as a feldsher to great discontent of my male colleagues, and after this I practiced at industrial estates and often assisted at injuries".[2]

In 1867, Hedén became a teacher at the obstetrics institution i Gothenburg. Johanna Hedén founded Göteborgs Barnmorskesällskap (Gothenburg Midwifery Association) in 1885, which was the first union for women in her country; Svenska Barnmorskeförbundet (Swedish Midwifery Association) in 1886, and the paper Jordemodern for midwives in 1888.

Hedén was married and had a daughter who, however, died at the age of one in 1877.

A street in Gothenburg was named after Johanna Hedén.

There is a statue of Johanna Hedén by Inga-Louise Lindgren in front of the Östra Hospital in Gothenburg.

• Johanna Maria Bowall i Wilhelmina Stålberg: Anteckningar om svenska qvinnor (1864)
• Idun 1895. Biografi om Johanna Hedén
• Pia Höjeberg: Jordemor (2011)

• Johanna Hedén at Svenskt kvinnobiografiskt lexikon